a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cathode plate transfer apparatus for the purpose of forwarding a bunch of cathode plates to be used in the nonferrous metal electrolytic refinery, e.g., cathode plates pulled out of an electrolytic cell, one by one at regular intervals continuously to the process for peeling off the electrodeposited metal plate attached to the cathode plate, or composing the cathode's base plates after peeling off the electrodeposited metal plate so as to be arranged at regular intervals suited for setting in the electrolytic cell upon receiving said cathode's base plates.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, with the mechanization of the electrodeposited metal plate peeling-off work in the nonferrous metal electrolytic refinery, there is a cry for the mechanization of the cathode plate transferring work before and after said peeling-off work.
However, as regards the cathode plate transferring work on the occasion of forwarding the cathode plates pulled out of, for instance, an electrolytic cell to the electrodeposited metal plate peeling-off process, the quantity of cathode plates to be supplied sheerly varies with the conditions on the part of the electrolytic operation, while the quantity of cathode plates to be discharged sheerly varies with the conditions on the part of the peeling-off process. Accordingly, as for the cathode plate transfer apparatus, it is not only required to be capable of filling quite different kinds of functions, namely, the function of receiving cathode plates according to the conditions of the electrolytic cell and the function of sending out cathode plates according to the condition of the peeling-off process, but also required to be capable of filling the function of sufficiently absorbing the fluctuations of the quantity of in-coming cathode plates and the quantity of out-going cathode plates free of interference of such fluctuations. However, there has not yet been proposed any cathode plate transfer apparatus to meet these requirements satisfactorily. The same situation as above is perceived with respect to the cathode plate transfer mechanism for returning the cathode's base plate after peeling off the electrodeposited metal plate to the electrolytic cell as well.